"So."

Cricketunes strum up a serenade in the backwoods of Johto and Morty, Miki, and I are standing in front of Morty's house. It's not terribly large, despite belonging to arguably the most important person in the city, but there's a warm, rustic feel about it- just the way I remember.

"Bigger on the inside," I say as he opens the door.

"What?" Morty asks, turning around.

"Oh, nothing." I lie, the vivid memory of the last time I was here replaying in my mind. I try to recall the way Bronze's fire lit up the ground floor of the house, which is not only spacious (especially for the size as it appears from the outside- the two don't match up at all) but the whole thing is basically brimming with all sorts of machinery mixed with clearly uncared for furniture. Even though the whole place is nothing short of unconventional, I feel safe when I'm here.

There's a real fire now, humming and crackling away in a fire place in the living room, which is decked out with a sofa, several chairs, and a plasma TV.

Morty probably does have the money for a larger house, I reflect, he's just spending it on machinery and televisions. I can't believe I didn't notice how much junk there was in here when I was younger.

Feeling slightly guilty for being so spiteful when I'm in their house, I sit down and think of something more positive. "Tea?" Miki asks. "We already have some brewing."

"What kind of tea?" I ask.

"Chai. Morty likes green, which just proves how horrible his taste is, but I've personally always been more of a chai fan."

"There is nothing wrong with green tea." protests Morty. "Come on, back me up."

"If I told you I liked iced tea more than either of them, would I be kicked out of the house?" I ask.

"Boo," Morty says.

I laugh. "Yeah, yeah, I do go for the herbal stuff. I don't usually drink tea though. We don't even have stores that carry it in New Bark. We just have this one really low quality supermarket that sells sausages that taste like Tauros dung."

Miki comes back with two cups of tea, handing one to me and the other to Morty before going back and getting her own. They're served in cute traditional teacups that are probably worth a fortune. I take a sip to find my tongue is burning, and decide to put it down on the table until later notice. Miki doesn't say a word about this, but I do watch as she chugs her entire cup.

Fire types.

"So," Morty asks, "You... you're a Goldeneye."

I nod. "Celebi."
"Powers include phantom wings, correct? Anything else? Can you really time travel?" Miki's slightly more aggressive tone throws me off, but I take another sip of the scalding tea before continuing.

"I can't time travel on my own, but I get glimpses of the past and future. It's how I managed to keep up with you."

"That's still insanely powerful. Can you flash?" Morty says, awe in his voice.
"Since I started!" I tell him. "I can see the bonds and all."

"Mega evolution?"

"Mega what?" I ask.
"Never mind. So... any other... abilities?" he pauses.

The room is quiet except for the fire. I know exactly what I need to say but I don't want to say it. I can't say it.

"I..." I stop, try to pick up my tea, and almost drop it. I place the cup back down and the steamy liquid flies up, some of it splattering all over the carpet. "You want to know," I choke a sob down, "You want to know why I knew all that about you."

The silence encourages me to go on.

"I don't know if you'll believe me, but... two years ago from my perspective, when I was just a few weeks older than I am now, I sat in this exact room and you taught me what a Goldeneye was. You told me what I could do. You explained everything. You taught me about Red."

"What happened?" Morty presses.
"We failed," I tell him. "We failed and the world ended. Celebi- she- she sent me back and-" I cry into my chai tea. I'm so used to it that the tears become something hollow, something involuntary. Raindrops drip from my eyes instead of tears and they fall for a solid minute in silence, ruining my tea.

Morty puts a hand around my back. "I'm sorry."

"I missed you," I tell him. "I missed you so much. I woke up and spent everyday thinking about how I watched you die and now you don't remember me. You don't remember any of it."

"No," he confirms, "I don't... but I can promise that any way we can, we will make this time different. If you've been given a second chance, then we'll have to work to make sure that it's the only chance we'll need. I know exactly where we need to start, too."

I wipe the tears from my face. There's a bit of a smile poking out from there now. "Thank you," I tell him. "Th-thank you so much."
"What's this 'starting point' going to be, anyways?" Miki asks, lips pursed.

Morty's still looking at me as he says the words. "So, tomorrow morning... do you remember Eusine? It's time to meet up with him again."

***

I wake up in the morning in a better mood than I've been in months. I get right out of bed, launching Luna straight up, and she lands on the ground indignantly with a squeak that definitely doesn't become her. "Ashley, what are you doing now?" she asks, brushing herself off.

"Today's the day. Are you all ready to go to Burned Tower? We've got some legendaries to wrangle."

"By wrangle, do you mean speak with or do you mean kill?" D'spinas asks.

"Speak with." I say. "I don't even know how you'd come to the conclusion that we were going to walk into Burned Tower and start killing legendaries."

"I was just clarifying." she insists. "You humans have strange tongues."
"You're speaking in that 'strange tongue' right now, more or less. Point being, we need to leave in fifteen minutes?"

"Food?" asks Luna. "What are we doing for food?"

"Pancakes on the fly!" Ten suggests.

"Speed buffet." Luna calls, grinning wickedly.

"Cupcakes!" adds Rose, who doesn't have any idea what we're talking about but is still eager to add to the conversation.

"Even better!" I tell them.

Fifteen minutes later, we're in front of the Burned Tower with a granola bar apiece.

"This tastes like cardboard." Ten tells me.

"Nah. If cardboard had a baby with book pages and then that baby was sprayed in woodchips, it would taste like this." Luna confirms.

"How do you know what book pages taste like?" asks Reginae, mortified. "Well, anyways, you have fun with your 'food'. I'll be over here, photosynthesizing. Grass type is best type!"

Rose isn't eating hers. There's a bit of granola-textured slop on the ground before her.

D'spinas hasn't eaten anything that I can recall in weeks.

"Right. Why don't we go in now?" I ask.

The team exchanges nervous glances but in the end we all find ourselves walking into the tower. The ground creaks beneath them and already I'm feeling nervous. "Do you mind if I put you guys back in the Pokeballs for a sec?"
Reginae opens his mouth and then looks down at the ground. "No, but if you make this a regular thing, I'm going to have a problem."
"It won't be!" I say defensively. "Everyone else?"

No one else objects, so everyone returns to their Pokeballs. Morty and Miki are waiting for me, accompanied by a man wearing a ridiculously flamboyant suit.

"Oh, you must be Ashley. Pleasure to meet you!" he shakes my hand vigorously before I withdraw it.

"S'fine." I look to Morty. "So you want me to go down there?"

He nods.

"So she's our bait?" Eusine asks with a laugh that sounds way too sincere for suggesting that they throw a thirteen year old down into a pit filled with legendary Pokemon.

"Yeah. Bait." I laugh back before walking backwards, still facing them. "See ya soon!" I turn to descend the stairs.

Bait my ass.

As I approach the bottom floor, I see Silver standing right next to the stairs and immediately remember that he, too, would love to have some legendaries on his side. Unfortunately, his way of convincing large legendary beasts to join his cause is beating them into submission. Generally this is something that works in our world, screwed up as it is, but even then I get the feeling now is probably not the time.

"You again!" he groans.
"Don't worry, I don't want to deal with you either. Let me through and there won't be a problem."
Silver steps aside, gesturing towards the stairs. "When you get roasted by Entei, don't come crying to me."

"Uh huh. Make sure you don't wet your pants when the legendary dogs start baying." I tell him. "Later."

I descend into the crater alone. Above, the world sways and I can feel the eyes of the beasts upon me. Assertively, I take the next two flights of stairs down until I am facing them.

Suicune stares down at me with all the righteous wrath of a god betrayed.

"You remember, don't you?" I ask quietly.

They are disappointed in you, Celebi.

"I don't care who's 'disappointed' in me. Heck, I don't even know why Celebi died in the first place. You pushing all of this off on me is insane." I click open an Ultra Ball. "I'd watch out if I were you. If I get desperate enough, I'm not going to play by the rules anymore."

(I'm probably not doing a very good job of winning them over.)

Suicune narrows their eyes, their pure white muzzle twisted into a snarl. You are making our jobs a lot harder than they need to be.

"Maybe it wouldn't be so hard if any of you had tried to assist me in the first place instead of leaving me to die with a job that's way too large for one legendary, let alone just a Goldeneye." I snap.

She's making reasonable points, Suicune. We may traverse many worlds, but our neglect of just one causes ripples across space-time. The legendaries have not been the protectors we are sworn to be. Entei steps until they are even with Suicune.

Tell her the truth, Raikou adds, punctuating their telepathy with a roar. Tell them what we know of the boy.

"Ethan." I whisper. "You know?"
Not everything. Not much we can say. He is watching. Suicune says, If he gets out, it will not just reduce your chances of finding this Ethan. It will destroy all of them across the multiverse.

"He's out?" I ask.

Suicune doesn't reply. Instead, they touch their nose to my own and I am overwhelmed by pain, struggling with a set of lungs much larger than my own. My body grows heavy and all I can taste is salty water and pain, each breath like the formation and destruction of a universe within my chest. Everything is too large and wrong and-

Our secret. The pain recedes. Is that enough to silence the both of you? Suicune looks resentfully at Entei and Raikou, who both seem to be amused.

We know what it is to be mortal. Before Lugia saved us from the burning tower, we were kitsune ourselves. Raikou purrs. Ah, to be young. To not understand the infinite expanse of universes we inhabit.

A troubled time. Suicune states firmly. We learned well. Now, we must run, as is our destiny. Celebi, you must do well in your quest. I know you fight for this world right now, but as I may not speak much, I will tell you this- until you find your friend, something more is at stake. Someone very dear to us is in danger.
The three of them exchange looks before soaring into the air, bouncing off the sides of the tower and dashing away into the air.

Morty climbs down the ladder. "What did they tell you?" he asks, Eusine trailing behind.
I look at him and wink. "That I have a bright future."

Eusine sighs. "Oh, if only I could be touched by such a majestic beast. What must I do to earn this reward?"

"Um," I say, "Be more assertive?"